Dr Offiong Offor, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Akwa Ibom State.
Ukpong UKPONG
Akwa Ibom State government has consistently appropriated N18.5million yearly for Integrated Farmers Scheme (IFS), though information at public disposal indicates that the scheme has been moribund since 2014.
The Ministry of Agriculture has spent at least N10 million as reported in the 2015, 2016, 2022 and 2023 annual reports of state on overhead and recurrent expenses for the moribund scheme.
The Ministry spent N4.920 million in 2015, N1.2 million, N4.020 million in 2022 and N800,000 in second quarter of 2023 on the scheme.
“The scheme only exists on paper, there is nothing on ground”, a Director in the Ministry told our reporter on enquiry.
According to him, the ministry has moved to other initiatives and may not consider bringing it back, “because so many people who benefitted from loans have refused to repay, leaving a huge debt that continues to be a burden to the ministry”.
Another source in the ministry said that what remains of Integrated Farmers Scheme is a derelict office space somewhere around Udok Street, Uyo where there are still skeletal services focused on loan recovery.
“Our office in Udok Street off Wellington Bassey Way, is to pursue those who collected loan and have not paid back”, He said.
Pressed to confirm whether the scheme could still be receiving allocations in the state budget, both sources declined to comment further.
Checks indicate that the supervising ministry, the State Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development keeps the scheme as a permanent feature of annual budgets to receive funds whereas facts on ground and revelations from official state documents suggest that the scheme is non-functional.
No expenditure was posted under personnel budget of the scheme in the 2016 audited account of the state, suggesting as this reporter gathered that zonal offices of the scheme across the 31 local government areas have shutdown.
No expenditure was posted for personnel cost under the scheme between 2016 – 2023, however the scheme was still incurring overhead cost.
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This year, N18.5 million has been approved as budget for the scheme, however, the Commissioner of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Offiong Offor, could not explain what these funds would be used for.
Her rather non-committal reply to this reporter’s repeated enquiry about the viability of Akwa Ibom State Integrated Farmers Scheme (IFS), was that “Young people’s capacity is developed in integrated farming.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Iniobong Akpan, a farmer who once benefited from the program wondered if Governor Umo Eno will reactivate the scheme and streamline it for monitoring because it once helped improve food security in the State.
“We were promised support, but it’s been years since we received any assistance,” said Aniekan Inyang, another young farmers who enlisted for the scheme in its early days.
“It’s like the scheme never existed. But, if reactivated it will help young farmers.”
The Integrated Farmers Scheme launched with fanfare in 1998, was meant to empower farmers and boost food security in the state.
Government official online portal shows that the Akwa Ibom State Integrated Farmers Scheme was initiated by then State Ministry of Agriculture and managed as a project under the State Microcredit Scheme until 2003, when the Victor Attah administration signed into law a bill establishing it as a parastatal in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Its core objectives were to empower farmers, particularly youths, to undertake vocations in agriculture and allied businesses.
The scheme is said to have helped in creating employment and contributed to food security in the state, provided training and funding to farmers, with each participant receiving at least N500,000 as a refundable loan to start up their vocation.
In 2010 and 2011, 2000 indigenes of the state were empowered under the scheme.
